User talk:Jimbo Wales

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Please endorse the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative

The Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, inspired by Wikileaks, seeks to make Iceland the world leader in freedom of speech. (See immi.is) I would be overjoyed to see "Jimbo Wales" appear on the list of endorsements! I don't know whether the Wikimedia Foundation is able to endorse political proposals, but if so I'd love to see them there as well. Once a safe haven is known to exist in Iceland, all other Wikipedias will have some room to breathe. Wnt (talk) 23:36, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

As I am currently stuck in London, I'm boycotting all things Icelandic - even Sigur Ros, one of my favorite bands - until they get their volcano under control. :-) Actually, I will take a look at this - I saw it a while back. I try to be very careful about what I endorse and you are right that it would have to be me personally, as the Foundation doesn't do anything "political" directly really.--Jimbo Wales (talk) 08:21, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

If you're at a loose end, you might like to visit me in sunny Wimbledon. I'm sure you'll enjoy what I have to show you! Stephen B Streater (talk) 08:32, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

I was 14 when my mother's boyfriend said that to me, Streater. I hope you don't mean the same thing he did. Bielle (talk) 22:19, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Probably not, unless he was in any way like me, which my friends will tell you is unlikely! Stephen B Streater (talk) 22:28, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Why not use a signature?

Usually, a custom signature identifies the user as experienced. Being the founder/God/Imperial Grand Poohbah/etc. of Wikipedia, it seems strange that you don't use a custom signature. Another reason for using a custom signature is that your posts are easily recognized. So why not use one? Regards, ManishEarth^{Talk • Stalk} 17:50, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Others might argue that it is pointless decoration and waste of bytes. Just sayin' —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:22, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about you, but to me, a custom signature identifies a user as an attention-seeker. --Carnildo (talk) 21:24, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict)One could also argue that by not having a custom signature He is being the ultimate "benevelent dictator" (no offence intended on using term dictator!), that we are all nominally equal though He is the "first among equals". I think that's a good reason for Him not to adopt one, adopting one may be seen by some as arrogant.Camelbinky (talk) 21:38, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps they simply didn't have weird and wonderful signatures when Jimbo chose his - and changing it would be a big deal. Perhaps we can all get together and design a really wonderful one for his 50th birthday present. Stephen B Streater (talk) 21:48, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

Eric Ely AfD

The Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Eric Ely has been closed as No consensus, with the article being kept. Coren asked here, "Do our content guidelines allow for inclusion of that person's biography?", quickly followed by "If they do, how do we fix them so that they do not." These were fair questions that we should try to answer. --JN466 21:24, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

I dont like the refs calls in a Lakers game, can I fix the rules of basketball so they dont lose again? ;)Camelbinky (talk) 21:49, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

One way to "fix" the result is to limit the number of bios to 10,000 people, say. A duff one would be deleted to make way for each new one - comparatives are much easier to judge than absolutes. I often use a similar principle for over-long articles. I don't add new material without removing some waffle. Stephen B Streater (talk) 22:20, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Here's another idea, following up on Stephen's. While I tend to agree with Camel, I think we could harness technology to help us here. Would there be a way to create a list of the least-viewed BLPs (over, say, a 3-month period)? If so, and if that list were made available, editors with BLP-deletion in their blood could review articles on that list to see if they were non-notable (by Wiki standards), and bring them to AfD them as appropriate. The premise here is that the least-viewed BLPs are of least interest to our readers, and perhaps most worth checking for notability--by those who wish to look for such things.--Epeefleche (talk) 22:25, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

One practicable idea that's been raised before would be to have BLP AfDs default to "Delete" if there is no clear consensus. --JN466 06:56, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

That's not an approach I would support, though I do believe the German wiki works that way.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:00, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Why not? Isn't it far worse to have a bad BLP on a marginally notable person than to have none at all? --JN466 07:11, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

You have an assumption or two tucked away there. The Ely AfD was not with regard to a "bad BLP". Nor was there a consensus that the person was "marginally notable" -- there was a split between people, many of whom thought he was perfectly wiki-notable. And some of the no votes appeared to simply be a misunderstanding of the one-event rule.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:18, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

You seem to think this is not a bad BLP ... try nominating it for GA or FA, or just a peer review! Your argumentation is incomprehensible to me, and this dialogue, clearly pointless. Let's leave it at that. --JN466 12:31, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Over the years, it's been quite a normal and salutary evolutionary process in sport to change the rules when people got hurt. Camelbinky, neither you nor me "lose" in a case like this; it's the BLP subject that loses. This article will still sit there in five years, even if the guy does sterling work over the period between now and then – sterling work that does not attract newspaper attention. It is simply not a very humane or responsible way to go about our business. You won't find articles like this in a reputable work like Gale's Encyclopedia of World Biography. --JN466 22:32, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) @Epeefleche: This mechanism already exists, through the {{blpunreferenced}} category; we cannot force editors to tackle deficient articles, neither can we require that deficient articles be brought up to standard other than by forcing the issue per WP:AFD. That is a perennial problem here in that articles which meet minimum requirements are left alone until some dedicated enthusiast comes along and resolves to spend the time and effort to take them to the next level. But my experience here is that although stub creation is useful, there are few editors who can, or will, make a useful article. I cut my editing teeth here on the Wikification project, and it was a useful experience. That does not appear to be happening any more, and we end up fire-fighting. Unhelpful. Rodhullandemu 22:42, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

Well, I've been bringing some articles up to scratch (or at least to the next level). It's very informative and I enjoy it (although unfortunately a lot of the best film sources are unreliable) - but it's lonely work for an extravert like me, so I come by the more public places (and articles) from time to time for a holiday. Stephen B Streater (talk) 22:57, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

WP:NOTPAPER covers my counterarguments against limits on the number of BLPs we should have.Camelbinky (talk) 23:07, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

I'd like some indication of the number of editors who have seen an article recently. One with a lot of traffic is likely to be higher quality than one which is only occasionally read by an editor. The watch list measure comes close, but for some reason it has a lower limit which seems to be higher than almost all articles on WP, in particular the difficult ones. For example Eric Ely currently could have 29 watchers, or I could be the only one. Stephen B Streater (talk) 23:41, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

To answer your question, yes I have seen an article recently (several in fact). I disagree with your premise that articles with more traffic are higher quality... perhaps that is somewhat true, but there are multiple exceptions to that just within the subset of Wikipedia articles that I work on. By both number of "visitors" and by number of editors who have it on their watchlist I would assume that Port of Albany-Rensselaer and Brunswick (Brittonkill) Central School District arent POPULAR articles, but I would say they both are much better than you would expect using a graph corelation based on your premise of "more watchers=better quality". Of course outliers will be expected from any hypothesis, perhaps these are just two of them.Camelbinky (talk) 00:32, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes - I agree it could only be a warning light and many of the best articles are specialist and may be rarely accessed or edited. Stephen B Streater (talk) 01:24, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. If in three months only 2 people have accessed a BLP, it may well be that its usefulness is lesser than the risk it presents.--Epeefleche (talk) 07:03, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

That right there is where I'm getting lost... what risk does a BLP that isnt "popular" (for lack of a better word) pose? Kenmore Hotel is a nice article, and I hope since I created and wrote it that it is indeed notable, but few will ever see it. But it keeps information around for the future, information that was scattered, information that may get lost in this digital information age, and allows for future bits found here and there to be brought here to one place in the future. I see Wikipedia's role as being more than an encyclopedia, more like the seed-banks around the world that save seeds from all the world's plants for the future in case of natural (or man-made) disaster so that we have diverse crops with different immunities and characteristics. Our goal, in my eyes is to save knowledge and history and science, etc. That's just how I personally wish Wikipedia was, though. So if the article is doing no actual harm, what's wrong with keeping it?Camelbinky (talk) 14:43, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

User:Okip

I think all of Wikipedia should be concerned about the way the most prolifict editor with the ARS was driven off by a biased admin. Okip merely remarked at an editor review and for that, one of the deletionists blocked him indefinitely. This travesty deserves you upmost attention. We don't know if Okip is coming back but would the foundation consider paying a monetary reward to encourage his return? There is no editor who better works towards creating the sum of all human knowledge. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.255.164.66 (talk) 05:44, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Okip isn't currently blocked. [1]. MickMacNee (talk) 12:58, 18 April 2010 (UTC)